Texas A&M vs. UT: which school is a better fit?

<p>“I’m pretty sure (from what I hear) that UT is a lot of constant partying”</p>

<p>Oh please. Yeah right, everyone is partying 24/7.</p>

<p>Any college experience is what you make of it. Yes, you will find the UT culture more accepting of a bisexual lifestyle IN GENERAL. That doesn’t mean you can’t make friends at A&M. </p>

<p>And A&M probably has more of a “Christian feel” since the student is more far-right Republican IN GENERAL. That doesn’t mean you won’t find on-campus Christian groups at UT. </p>

<p>Poster #12 is correct. Shouldn’t your academic interests be part of the equation? In which case, UT would be the better choice for you…</p>

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<p>This has got to be the most ridiculous post I’ve ever read…</p>

<p>In a school of over 50,000 students, I don’t think anyone is going to run into prejudice for being Christian… - or bi, or green, or purple…</p>

<p>You can and will find “your people” if you look - they’re there.</p>

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<p>Dude, when people say that A&M is a very conservative school, they are not talking about politics, but rather the overall lifestyle.</p>

<p>I graduated from A&M and I also had a ton of friends at A&M. But the atmosphere of the school wasn’t for me and if I had the choice again, I would have went somewhere else.</p>

<p>Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. My friends and I met a lot of girls at A&M and it seemed like the following could describe most of them:</p>

<p>1) Girls already in long-term, serious relationships. (Probably 60% to 70% of the girls I met while at A&M)
2) The really sheltered types (only one or no boyfriends in their entire lives, no or awkward social skills, etc. I met quite a few girls like this)
3) A few girls who are #1 above and have absolutely no social lives outside of their boyfriends (I remember at least one girl I had in class like this… nice girl though, but kinda pathetic.)
4) Girls who want to get married ASAP. Damn, I knew quite a few people from class who were getting engaged.
5) The real religious types.</p>

<p>I’m just using the above as an example of one conservative aspect of A&M I noticed. Don’t get me wrong, I did date girls at A&M, but I felt like had I went to a less conservative school, I would have met a lot more girls who weren’t so clingy. A lot of the guys at A&M were clingy as well.</p>

<p>I transferred in as a junior, by the way, so YMMV as a freshman. For being a school with almost 50,000 students, A&M feels more like a smaller, private school than you’d expect. A lot of my friends at A&M noticed the same thing, which surprised me.</p>

<p>That’s just what you’d have to expect out of a very conservative, research oriented school in a semi-rural part of the state.</p>

<p>The religious types at A&M are in a large minority but they are still in a minority. However, there’s a lot of kids here who may not be religious per se but they still have really conservative values. Me personally, when I was 22 the LAST thing on my mind was getting married. I have nothing against small town kids with real traditional values and I befriended a few, but it wasn’t me at all.</p>

<p>There were Greeks on A&M who didn’t fit this mold but man, a lot of them were straight-up trash. A&M isn’t a Greek school at all. </p>

<p>If I had anything to complain about any of this at all, I did get frustrated meeting kids at A&M who were very booksmart but were intellectually dull. I mean, I could meet people who were damn smart with class but were boring as **** to talk to. For being a school with 50,000 kids, I really wish the atmosphere wasn’t so one-sided.</p>

<p>Also, it seems like the school lost a lot of it’s unity after the Bonfire collapse. Ever since Gates left, the administration has been poor and ran on-campus living to the ground. As a result, dorm rivalries are starting to die out.</p>

<p>Not a total loss, my degree from A&M will be a good stepping stone into a MBA program eventually.</p>

<p>vultureair, I feel like I’ve read that same exact post somewhere else on these boards. I’m sure if I searched I could find it, because I remember responding to it. Did you create a new username to repeat your same opinion?</p>

<p>A&M is roughly 50% female, meaning roughly 25,000 students attend who are female. The chances that you met even 10% of the female student population at A&M are very slim, so speaking as if you can mold them all in to a couple categories that are all similar is pretty ignorant. I’ve met dumb, smart, conservative, liberal, lesbian, straight, “easy”, sheltered, clingy, independent, black, white, asian, hispanic, american indian, indian, tall, short, fat, skinny women at A&M. I’m not sure if you went to school when A&M was an all mens’ school, but I’ve seen all types of women here… maybe you never got out much?</p>

<p>I find your whole post ill-informed and flat out moronic. Sure I’ve met people that fit into your stereotypes of people at A&M, but believe it or not, I’ve met those same type of people at Baylor, Texas, and Texas Tech. So maybe it’s just the whole state of Texas that is that way… there’s another stereotype for you!</p>

<p>I don’t even want to respond to the other comments. They are so easily one-sided against A&M all you need to do is a quick google search to refute them. Next time you create a new username, at least make it a worthwhile post.</p>

<p>Woah to everyone bashing UT about being a “constant partying school” and stuff- you guys are really misconstrued to the academics that go on here. I’m an Engineering student and I have not partied ONCE my entire time here at UT- Most of the time I spend studying because YES UT is academically rigorous considering a majority of top 10%-ers come here and we have some large research projects (IE. Nissan Versa’s new seats are made of chemically recycled polymers,etc.). Austin is a GREAT college town and was ranked in one of the magazines as the top college town for students. I have had friends come from CStat to Austin and they loved it. When comparing Northgate to 6th street, they said 6th street was , to a large extent, fun. To those saying that “If you go to UT and your a Christian , you will be persecuted for your faith” (or something along the lines of that) that is completely false- A large majority of the population is Christian and/or religious but we have a large variety of religions- Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jewish, etc. Their are tons of Christian groups- even to the specificity of race (IE. Hispanic Christian groups, Chinese Christian groups,etc.)</p>

<p>I do in a way agree with the different kinds of girls at A&M post. Obviously all girls don’t fit into those categories but so far I’ve met girls that fit those categories. Especially walking back to my dorm at night and seeing a few different girls every night crying on their cell phone outside their dorm to what I can only be assume to be their boyfriend back home.</p>

<p>Making a point based on to the top 10% is pretty silly because the law in itself is silly. When first meeting kids and being told they were auto admits I was impressed because they were in the top 10% of their high school class. Only to later find out they’re pretty dumb and wouldn’t have even been in the top 50% of my high school but since they attended a school in Podunkville, TX they were automatically accepted. When I hear someone was the valedictorian at their school and made an amazing 25 on their ACT all I can do is laugh to myself.</p>

<p>You might think the top 10% law is silly but in some aspects it helps UT. Imagine all valedictorians/salutatorians from large schools in Dallas/Houston/San Antonio/Austin (IE. Plano West, Plano East, Cypress Creek, Cypress Fairbanks, Highland Park) who (not saying all) come to UT.</p>

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<p>Alright buddy, I realize you probably haven’t been around all that much yet, but let’s put on our serious pants here for a second and think about this. Go look at the flagship university in most state university systems and tell you you can’t say the same thing. UT, TAMU, Berkeley, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Florida, Penn State, Penn, the list goes on and on.</p>

<p>All those people applying to UT that are at the top of their class are not doing so because of the top-10% law. They are doing it because it is a good school, and most people in their situation want to go to a good school.</p>

<p>The top-10% law is around because they wanted to even the playing field for kids coming from those rural schools. It is sort of akin to affirmative action in that it assumes that a lot of those kids would get overlooked because they didn’t really have the opportunity to stand out with the opportunities available at their small school. The end result is that you get a lot of kids that actually would have been overlooked, but you also bring in some riff-raff with those guys. It also has the added benefit of encouraging those who would ordinarily perhaps not thought of college to give it a more serious thought if they know they can get in.</p>

<p>I must admit, though:
6th Street >> Northgate</p>

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<p>Remind me again what happens when you assume? Who said they aren’t on the phone with their boyfriend in town?</p>

<p>Just today I walked by a friend of mine who was crying on the phone, and also happened to be a girl. After she got off, I asked her if she was okay and what had happened to upset her. Turned out she was crying to her mom about receiving a test back in which she had failed. </p>

<p>Girls cry. Doesn’t mean they are crying to their boyfriend they’ve been dating since they were 8 when they grew up together as neighbors in Podunk, TX.</p>

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<p>Hmmm… For an 18 year old girl that’s about to transfer in this spring, this is slightly offensive… But hey, let see where I’ll fit in. </p>

<p>This’ll be fun:</p>

<p>Well, I guess you could fit me into number two. I mean, I’ve never had a boyfriend, so this must surely mean I’m sheltered. Shame on me for never caring to have a boyfriend in high school… And I’m pretty sure I have social skills.</p>

<p>I could fit into number 4 too. I mean, I’d really like to find who I’m going to marry there. That’d be pretty nice, you know? But what do I know. I’m sheltered.</p>

<p>And I’m a Christian, and conservative. </p>

<p>Yep. Based on this accurate observation, this’ll be me next semester. Forget everything that makes someone unique and different. Just throw them in categories after hardly knowing them. I am now officially boy obsessed, socially awkward, and pathetic. </p>

<p>Sounds like I did pick the perfect place to go to college. Thanks for the help, man.</p>

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<p>Gstein is right. We sure do. :)</p>

<p>Gig 'em!</p>

<p>Gstein,</p>

<p>Your overly defensive attitude in regards to A&M actually supports my point. I don’t really have that much against A&M, all I said was that the school wasn’t a good fit for me and I gave some examples as to why. </p>

<p>Yet you’re trying to impale me because I’m not “stepping in line” with your opinion in regards to A&M. That’s the kind of prevalent attitude that pushed me away from liking the school as much as I wanted to.</p>

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<p>Considering that several of my friends at A&M said the same things to me in regards to the school, it doesn’t surprise me that someone else would say the same things on here. The only reason I had the balls to say what I did is because I talked to several friends from class and even from work and they agreed with me on several of the points I made above. So I knew I wasn’t the constant there.</p>

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<p>Actually, if you took Stat 302 or 303 and/or worked in the actuarial sciences like I do, you would know that this is false. It’s well known and accepted that if you take a large enough sample size, you can draw conclusions about the population, and you don’t need a sample size of 10%. Hell, dude, do you think presidential election polls ask 10% of the U.S. population? Of course not!</p>

<p>Plus I NEVER said I molded “all of them” into my categories above. If you actually graduated from A&M, you really ought to put your degree to use and read what I said. I stated specifically that I could fit most of the girls I met while at A&M into those categories. I never said I could mold every single girls at A&M into them.</p>

<p>If A&M had a much larger variety of girls as you want me to believe, it’s extremely improbable that the majority of the girls I was meeting would fit into very limited, very rare categories. Hell, I just did a search on the A&M network on Facebook for a common girl’s name and let’s see, about two or three out of ten are obviously very religious, one or two out of ten are engaged and can’t be older than 22, a few others are in relationships… I’ve never met any of them yet the results fit very well into my point. Girls I never met yet they are similar to the girls I did meet at A&M.</p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against that at all. People are free to live their lives however they feel fit. I’m very libertarian about that sort of thing. It’s all about what increases the quality of life for you. But what I’m trying to say is that A&M overall is pretty damn conservative and homogenous and you’re trying to call BS on that… yet I went to a couple of other public universities before transferring to A&M and A&M is the only school in which I was getting wedding announcements from students who hadn’t even graduated yet. Don’t try to tell me that A&M is very diverse and not conservative… I’m not the only one who’s going to disagree with that.</p>

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<p>So have I. Many of my friends fit in that list. Let’s go through the list, shall we?</p>

<p>Dumb – I guess you could fit most of the sorority girls I met here (although I did know two who weren’t stupid.) Knew plenty of them, did not care to talk to many of them.
Smart – of course, but out of the smart people I met at A&M, not as many I felt I could have real intellectual conversations with. I knew A LOT of kids at A&M who I would say were smart, but had too much of a herd mentality or weren’t really “smart” outside of the textbooks. I knew plenty of “Dilbert” engineering majors. That said, by far the biggest advantage I had at A&M was that the kids were generally smarter than anywhere else I had been to before, which I appreciated.
Conservative – the majority of A&M
Liberal – a couple of friends of mine were pretty liberal but they were politically libertarian. Very interesting to talk to, yet they were definitely in a minority.
Lesbian – I knew one lesbian for sure at A&M and another one was a bisexual who I’ll include as well. The lesbian was actually in the closet… she admitted it to me, not sure why. Guess she thought I wouldn’t be judgemental. She complained about how she had to keep it to herself because A&M was so conservative and she had a lot of friends she didn’t think would be very understanding. The bi transferred out.
Straight – majority of A&M
Easy – yeah, I knew a few dorm sluts but overall the girls at A&M, when compared to Texas State or Tech, are anything but easy
Sheltered – plenty of those at A&M
Clingy – plenty of those at A&M
Independent – not as many as clingy
Black – several of my friends here were black but by far a minority here
White – vast majority
Asian – sizable minority, mostly international students in engineering
Hispanic – I would actually say that Asians are the largest minority at A&M but I may be wrong. If I’m wrong, Hispanics are perhaps the largest minority
American Indian – few and very far between
Tall and short – Irrelevant
Fat – I can honestly say not too many at A&M are fat
Skinny women – about the norm at A&M</p>

<p>But here’s the problem with your statement: you imply that A&M is very diverse in all of these, which would also have to imply that they are equally weighted, otherwise you don’t have a point. However, that’s not the case. The majority of A&M are white and conservative, no doubt about that. But the rest are split into a small minority.</p>

<p>You’re trying to make a point about A&M being diverse apparently but you’re leaving out that your groupings are by far NOT equal. You have two or three that are MUCH larger than the rest. So I don’t see what you’re trying to go at here.</p>

<p>If you’re trying to tell me that yes, there are a diverse group of people like above, then I agree. But the problem is that because they are not equally weighted, it is a hell of a lot harder to find and meet these “diverse” people that it would be at other, large universities that are less one-sided. Being diverse like you mentioned above means having more equal slices of pie.</p>

<p>When I put in a couple of common names into Facebook at a diverse school, I’m not going to get results that are so homogenous and common to people I did know.</p>

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<p>Again, you’re leaving out the fact that “all types of women” meaning diverse doesn’t mean all types are distributed equally. I was involved with several student organizations, study groups for my major, went to NG A lot more than I’d admit… I’d say that I got out plenty.</p>

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<p>And I find it amusing that I’m actually backing up my points with observations and experiences whereas you’re being immature and childish by resorting to name calling. I could do the same but it doesn’t prove anything or make for any sort of discussion.</p>

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<p>Once again, you fail to comprehend that the student body at every school is not going to be equally distributed. I’m sure that the exact same types of people can be found at UC Berkeley as well, but that doesn’t mean Berkeley is as conservative as A&M.</p>

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<p>Then perhaps you should return your degree back to A&M because it’s apparent that you don’t care enough to use any sort of intellectual ability… you just want to resort to name calling like a child.</p>

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<p>It must suck to be so narrow minded that you fail to realize that more than one person might actually have a differing viewpoint than you. As far as being a worthwhile post, you responded to it, didn’t you?</p>

<p>If you loved A&M, that’s great, but don’t try to imply that there’s anything wrong with anyone else who didn’t have the same experience. I said that A&M wasn’t a good fit for me, so be a big boy and suck it up that not everyone is like you. I obviously wasn’t right for A&M but I sucked it up and got the most out of my experience without *****ing about it all day while I was there. Maybe you could learn something from that.</p>

<p>vultureair, quite honestly I don’t have the time nor do I care enough to fully read your post or post a long and/or meaningful response. I am currently pursuing a degree in arguably one of the most challenging majors A&M has to offer, and have little free time as it is, so I could really care less about intensively debating something towards a random person on a forum when it won’t change your opinion anyways. </p>

<p>The point of my original post was to point out that while stereotypes exist for a reason, there are plenty of individuals that don’t fit the category. You can call me immature as much as you wish, but I don’t claim all sheltered and/or religious and/or women with boyfriends to be socially awkward or boring or that they don’t have “a life”. So yes, I felt it was necessary to respond to a person with 1 post in a defensive manner.</p>

<p>You made implications based off of my post, because I no where said A&M is overall a diverse school, I simply said there are others who do not fit your stereotypes. I was not trying to insult your few years experience at A&M nor your opinion, you are entitled to both. However I do find it insulting when people like you publicly denounce a school because the experience was not what you were looking for. Most people in this region of the country understand A&M is a conservative school, sorry that it was a surprise for you when you stepped on campus.</p>

<p>P.S. Posting your opinion on a forum is hardly having “balls”.</p>

<p>@David
when you say #5 ranked Football team i believe you mean TCU? A little birdie told me of a school which dropped out of the rankings with the last poll…(just poking some fun ^_^)
College is what you make of it. Of course there are some factors which you can’t change, but other than that its all up to you. A&M is definitely conservative, but most people ive met rarely bring up politics during normal conversations. College Station has its bars, movie theaters, restaurants, clubs, rec facilities etc. so if you look hard enough there is always something to do.</p>

<p>Andy09,
Ya got me there and, honestly, after watching the game, the deserved the drop. However, please do not interpret that as a lack of support for ones team (as another poster put it) I certainly take no offense to the poking. Unless you are a player, its safe to say that we are both mere observers.</p>

<p>I hope, at least, you will see that my orig post consisted of a “part A” serious response to the OP with my part B, P.S.–fun–, at the end. I believe the people that might have been offended by it did not take the time to recognise the end comment for what it was.</p>